


Revelation 17:4

by Bleed_Peroxide



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Banana Fish Smut Week, Blood Drinking, Demonic Possession, M/M, Multi, Restraints, Rough Sex, Semi-Public Sex, Succubi & Incubi, Threesome - M/M/M, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 02:39:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18002240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bleed_Peroxide/pseuds/Bleed_Peroxide
Summary: "There he saw a man sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names. The man was a vision of sublime beauty, gleaming hair like onyx and laughing eyes that smoldered like coals. He held a golden cup in his hand, filled with the bounty of his fornications. The name written on his forehead was a mystery: Babylon the Great. The Father of Prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth."A supernatural-themed AU wherein one can still find their humanity within universal themes of love, lust, and discovery. All these prompts are intended to tie into one another, though you can read each individually if you so choose. This is just pure id, my loves. I love AUs about vampires and all sorts of demonic beings, and I love writing about characters having a good time with one another.[Completed as part of the #BFSmutWeek on Twitter.]





	Revelation 17:4

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, yes, this is supposed to be #BF **SMUT** Week. But 1) blood-drinking is pretty sexy on its own, don'tcha think? And two, I wanted to set up the kind of world that the rest of fills would take place in, especially since Shorter, Ash, and Eiji are the primary ones having fun in this series. Hopefully, you stick around for the rest! ♥
> 
> I think this goes without saying, but all the characters written about from here on out are _at least eighteen years of age_ or older - they're the age of consent in my country.

Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Ash glanced up at the slivered moon and thanked his lucky stars that Eiji wasn’t here to see this.   

 Ash had been compared to all matter of the inhuman - an angel of wrath, a demon,  a wildcat prowling the forest. Sometimes he would find himself hooking a finger around his lip, pulling it up to expose milk-white teeth to his own reflection. 

 He had done this thousands of times. He tried to discern the point at which a boy shifted into a bloodsucker, but it was like the ever-changing shift of the tides along the shore.    

Pale skin like fine porcelain - easily explained as the result of a life spent in darkened rooms, ghostly compared to the rich umber of Cain’s complexion or golden tan of Eiji’s skin. The way Ash’s eyes sometimes looked haunted, the shadows beneath speaking of a deeper reason than a night spent tossing and turning. Jade eyes, compared to precious stones, luminous in a way that seemed almost unnatural.  

_The eyes of a siren,_ one man had panted against his neck.  _Eyes that lead a man to his death._  

Ash chased away the last droplet of blood with his tongue, smiling at the thought. The man had been an unwitting prophet, the first from whom Ash took that first cursed drought and quenched a thirst that water couldn’t touch.  

Dino had deemed it a gift beyond compare. Ash should be grateful for how goddamn _lucky_ he was that a powerful lord had chosen to sire a mere prostitute. It was an honor, a _privilege_ , that he had been plucked from a vulgar human life and chosen to ascend to the level of a  demigod.  

He had been so proud as Ash drank greedily, desperately, after weeks of fighting against it. Even now, years later, Ash could still feel phantom fingers tracing the debauched crimson stain around his lips, smearing it like a hooker’s lipstick.  

_Just give in to it, and I’ll teach you how to hunt._  

Ash found that, in the end, it hardly changed his circumstances.  It was just another way in which his survival relied on consuming from another: semen to pay for the roof over his head, blood to fuel a body that refused to die. Either way, he found his gaze fixed skyward as he preserved his dignity where he could.  

Ash chose prey that he knew nobody would miss should he lose control and drink too deeply - and until Ash had learned to lure them on his own, they were hand-picked by Dino.  They were patrons Club Cod deemed a liability… and, in what Ash couldn’t decide was a bizarre act of kindness or cruelty, all were past clients that lost interest in  Ash when he no longer passed for prepubescent.  

Ash felt it was primal retribution, in the end. They feasted on his body and soul - it was only fair that he feasted upon their blood. 

His pride, however, refused to let him dine the way Dino did.  

The old man was nothing if not traditional, extolling the virtues of drinking blood fresh from the jugular. He’d seen the way Dino’s prey reacted,  ensnared in his thrall before he cradled them in that fatal embrace. Here romantic  mythology seemed to merge with the practical limitations of reality -  it seemed that the pain or pleasure of a vampire’s kiss was entirely subjective. When Dino wished to kill his prey, he seemed to enjoy imbuing their blood with mortal terror; Dino said that it gave blood a sublime zest, like a well-seasoned cut of meat.  But when prey was hard to come by, he convinced one of his subordinates to provide; these were men too valuable to kill or - based on their rapturous expressions - to torture.  

“What does blood taste like when offered freely?” Ask had dared to ask, his curiosity getting the better of him.  

Dino’s answering smirk had made the gorge rise in Ash’s throat - a wordless offer to demonstrate.  

Ash learned to never ask his sire for instruction again.  

Instead, Ash chose to feed in the most detached way possible - a swift jab to the neck to immobilize his prey, letting their body crumble before he sat on the ground and fed from the wrist instead.  It made him feel more like the teenage boy he pretended to be, sitting cross-legged on the floor drinking blood from a man’s arm rather than a slice of pizza.  

It would have been easier, Ash knew, to feed from the jugular - he knew it was a much richer fount, the blood warm and decadent rather than  tepid leftovers that trickled to the extremities. But his pride refused to consider it. The thought of cradling these men in his arms in an approximation of a lover’s embrace as Dino had tried to teach him… it made his skin crawl.  

Better to treat them, treat his vile eating habits, like the filth they were. Drinking blood was a necessity, a routine chore like grabbing milk or buying laundry detergent. Ash never bothered with a thrall - it hardly mattered if his prey felt pleasure or pain. The taste he simply tried to ignore, as it was usually a thick flow of what tasted like dirty sewer water or rotten chicken broth; if he focused too much on the flavor, he’d just end up sick. 

Shorter had once reassured him that the taste of blood was psychological rather than physiological. 

Ash felt there was truth to the statement, some unspoken piece to the puzzle that he was missing. Both Dino and Shorter seemed to find pleasure in blood-drinking that Ash had yet to understand, though the latter was far less depraved when it came to how he sourced his meals.  

Ash had seen the care with which Shorter fed, the ginger way he’d cradle their neck or keep them on their feet when they were too blissed-out to stand; it was simple pleasure, not weakness, that made their knees give out. Shorter made him realize that drinking blood could, perhaps, be a reciprocal act of give and take.  

“So what  _does_ blood taste like when someone offers it to you?” Ash had asked him as well, seeking clarity.  

“It depends on who you drink from,” Shorter answered, sitting next to Ash while the blonde drained the last dregs from his victim. “A thrall can make it more palatable when your options are limited, but it tastes best from someone that you have some bond with. Platonic, sexual, or romantic bonds…. these tend to give it a different flavor. My sire once told me that you can usually _taste_ if you’re in love with someone well before your heart realizes what the hell is going on. Blood doesn’t lie.”  

Shorter wiped a stray droplet of blood from the corner of Ash’s mouth, sniffing curiously before sampling it for himself. His reaction was instantaneous, gagging as a violent shudder rippled through him.  

“ _Fuck_ , that’s disgusting. How the hell you’ve lived this long drinking that shit, I’ll never know. It’s a wonder you haven’t starved to death.”  

Ash lifted his shoulder in a half-hearted shrug,  picking up the dried-up carcass and chucking it into the river to sink to the bottom.  

“It gets the job done.” 

* * *

Eiji had seen glimpses of the monster hiding within a human vessel - it was evident in the way his eyes gravitated towards a blood stain on Ash’s shirt but was unwilling to broach the topic. He tried to align his schedule to Ash’s nocturnal patterns, yet Ash always returned from a hunt to find Eiji sleeping on the couch, a book still open on his lap. He sometimes flushed at the way Ash gazed at him, sensing something deeper in Ash’s scrutiny that he couldn’t pinpoint.  

Ash had always felt bloodlust with a neutrality he’d assigned to the mundane hungers of his human body - drinking blood was merely a way to scratch an itch. Feeding was passionless, a nuisance when he had much better things to. Yet with Eiji, his hunger was undeniable  _want_. Something in Eiji called to him like a siren song, drawing attention to the graceful slope of Eiji’s neck, the smoothness of his skin that begged for canines to puncture that pristine surface. For the first time, the idea of drinking blood filled him with yearning coiled deep within his gut - a peculiar mingling of bodily hunger and familiar lust that centered around the fluttering pulse in Eiji’s throat.  

He wanted to know what it would feel like to have Eiji in his arms, melting in his embrace like he’d seen so often with Shorter. It was utterly different from the unnerving way in which Dino fed, or even Ash’s own callous slaughter. While Ash had long since resigned himself as one of the damned, Shorter agonized more over his part-time job than he did over his vampiric nature. Even when Ash was ravenous, his declined Shorter’s suggestion that he could find help Ash find all-too-willing donors. 

“We’re just different kinds of people, Ash,” Shorter reiterated with an exasperated sigh. “You’re not doomed to be a ‘murderer’ or ‘monster’ like you seem to think. Feeding doesn’t hurt humans at all if you don’t want it to.”  

As if to underscore his point, Sing had merely made a sleepy noise as Shorter drank. The way he burrowed into the older man’s chest reminded Ash of a kitten curling into its mother's belly, milk-drunk and kneading its paws.  

Shorter sealed the wound with a swipe of his tongue, ruffling the younger boy’s hair fondly. 

“Go ahead and sleep, buddy. As always, I appreciate it.” 

“Anytime. Beats the hell out of chugging Nyquil to get some sleep.”  

And like that, Sing had drifted off with a soft snore. Shorter carried the boy over to the couch, where he tucked him with a blanket and a stuffed octopus. There was a sweetness, a familiarity in the routine, that made Ash’s chest ache. It brushed against a tender part of him that _yearned_ for something he dared not name. 

His sentiments must have been written plainly across his face, if Shorter’s sad smile was any indication.  

“The only thing stopping you is your own fear, Ash. You can’t get what you don’t ask for.”  

Ash knew it was impossible - Eiji was too pure to be soiled by a monster. Ash had spent too many years feeding with the intent to kill. He didn’t trust himself to stop when he needed to.  

He resolved to simply abstain from drinking blood altogether, to starve his desires entirely. He knew from his past life how hunger simply dissipated if one endured it long enough - it stood to reason that bloodlust could operate under a similar principle. If he ignored the parched feeling in his throat, learned to acclimate himself to the way it intensified with Eiji’s scent… surely his body would simply give up. 

Except that the more Eiji asked pointed questions, the longer Ash tried to ensure that his iron will remained unswayed. The more Ash tried to distance himself from the way Eiji’s scent wrapped around him like a vice, the closer Eiji was determined to get - a foolish rabbit hopping ever closer to a starved cat, unaware how the creature salivated as it approached. 

“You look really pale, Ash.” 

”Are you sure you’ve had enough to eat?” 

“You keep spacing out - are you feeling okay?”  

“Why is there blood on your shirt?”  

It was an innocuous touch to Ash’s arm that finally severed his strained self-control.  

Seeing a drop of blood, Eiji had wiped it away as though it were the most natural thing in the world. But that ruby liquid on Eiji’s skin ignited the glowing embers of need into flames - Ash’s body moved well before his common sense, taking Eiji’s finger into his mouth and sucking the droplet off.  

Though it’d been a clumsy remnant of a prior kill, Eiji’s skin changed it to something decadent - it was unlike anything Ash had ever tasted, almost like rich hazelnut and cocoa on his tongue. His eyelids slid closed with bliss, a tiny sound of pleasure slipping past his lips before Ash could stop himself. He couldn’t remember anything tasting so exquisite in his life.  

“...Why did you just do that?”  

The blood in Ash’s veins turned to ice. But the disgusting monster kept under lock and key cackled with glee at the uncertainty in Eiji’s voice, daring him to ask.  

_Go ahead and say it! I dare you!_  

“I-I don’t know what came over me, I just-” 

“You are the same as Shorter, aren’t you? Some kind of vampire?”  

If Ash had a heartbeat, it would have stopped dead in his chest. His head slowly raised to meet Eiji’s eyes, uncertain of what he would find. Terror, perhaps? Disgust?  

Whatever he’d expected, it wasn’t the warm smile that greeted him instead. He’d braced himself for Eiji to react with panic, to run away with terror like any other rational human being. Instead, Eiji might as well have asked Ash if he was a natural blonde.  

“Where the  _fuck_ did you learn about that?” Ash blurted out. He’d spent so long trying to hide away this ugly facet of his existence from Eiji, only for Eiji to address it with a nonchalance that bordered on insulting.  

“Because he told me?” Eiji replied, seemingly nonplussed by Ash’s reaction. “I think he did not want to surprise me later, so he told me before I had to ask.”  

_Of course, he did. Shorter doesn’t give a shit about propriety._  

The world around Ash felt as though it had been tipped on its side, all pretense of context and order in disarray as weeks’ worth of conversations with Shorter came floating back to the surface. The blonde half-collapsed onto the sofa next to Eiji, head and heart floating as though full of air.  

It was also dizziness, he realized with an internal grimace as the corners of his vision went dangerously grey. He’d gone far too long without drinking blood - though as he’d anticipated, the thirst clawing at his throat had long dried up as his body realized the futility of it. He closed his eyes and waited for the spell to pass.  

“You haven’t had anything to eat in a while, have you?” Eiji asked Ash, leaning forward to examine him more closely. The movement caused his oversized nightshirt to slip, exposing the luscious expanse of skin along his shoulder… and Eiji’s tantalizing aroma drifted to Ash’s nose.  

“I was wondering why you looked so pale, but I guess that answers my question.” 

Ash resisted the impulse to lick his lips as his mouth began to water. He averted his eyes anywhere else but the creamy skin only inches away from him, holding his breath against the delectable scent teasing his senses.  

“If you need to drink, Ash… I’m happy to let you have some of mine.”  

Eiji’s words were spoken with such sweetness, all innocence and selflessness - it was that soft heart of his that had made Ash fall for him so long ago. But god, what he _offered_ … it might as well have been the sultry purr of a siren as she lured a man to the edge of a cliff.  

“I’ve never fed the way Shorter has,” Ash admitted, forcing himself to meet Eiji’s eyes. It was vital that Eiji understood. “I’m…. I’m scared that not only will I hurt you, but that I won’t be able to stop once I start. I would never forgive myself if you died because of me.”  

Eiji’s soft palms cradled Ash’s before he’d even finished speaking. Their warmth was a welcome contrast to the cool marble of Ash’s own, a reassuring reminder that Eiji was still very much _alive_.  

“You can’t hurt me,” Eiji replied with an easy smile. “I trust you.”  

Somewhere within Ash’s heart, a long-frozen corner cracked as a fragile bloom emerged from the crevice. They were precisely the same words that Ash had said to Eiji not too long ago - _“I_ _trust you, Eiji. You can’t hurt me.”_  

He hadn’t realized that a tear had slid down his cheek until he swallowed against the sudden tightness in his throat, tasting salt on his lips. He didn’t deserve Eiji. What karmic balance could he possibly struck to have found someone that not long acknowledged his monster, but _accepted_ it? 

Sensing Ash’s reluctance, Eiji loosened the top two buttons of his dress shirt and shifted it to the side, exposing the delicate skin of his neck and shoulder. Ash felt as though the breath had been stolen from his lungs, but he dared not move - a part of him felt as though the spell would be broken if he so much as twitched.  

A languid roll of the shoulders, a coy smile. A small intake of breath, shaking hands reaching towards Eiji in benediction.  _So thirsty, so fucking thirsty…_  

Afraid to leave so much as a bruise, Ash drew Eiji to him with such obvious care that Eiji let out a snort of laughter.  

“Since when are you this shy, Ash? I’m not going to break.”   

Eiji adjusted himself to sit right against Ash, pressing his back against the blonde’s chest and tilting his head in invitation. Ash wrapped his arms around Eiji’s waist, and immediately, some of the anxiety that had clenched around his heart vanished - there was a familiarity in this kind of embrace that was nothing like Dino’s fatal hold; none of his victims smiled the way Eiji did, as though he’d wanted to be held all along. One of Eiji’s hands rested lightly on Ash's thigh, and the other found its way into silky blond strands.  

His grip was firm yet tender, the way one might run their hands through a lover’s hair as they kissed. It made heat thread into Ash’s veins.  

Ash couldn’t help himself - he pressed his face into the curve where neck met shoulder, breathing deeply. God, Eiji smelled _wonderful_ , and he knew from what little he’d been able to sample that he tasted like heaven. The tip of his tongue darted out to have a taste, tracing along idly the vivid vein that stood out against golden skin. Eiji let out a tiny whimper, shuddering in Ash’s arms.  

“You alright?” Ash asked. He couldn’t tell if it was a reaction of terror or- 

Eiji’s fingers tightened in his hair, accented voice airy in a way that indicated that it was a shiver of a very different kind.  

“You’re driving me crazy,” he admitted breathlessly. “I know you’re thirsty. _Drink_.” 

He didn’t need to be told twice. Ash opened his mouth wide, aligning his canines with the vein beneath and sinking his teeth into supple flesh, as easily as a knife through butter.  

Eiji let out a soft cry of surprise, hand digging into the fabric of Ash’s jeans. Ash felt dread taint that sweet feeling of relief -  _I hurt him, oh god, I hurt him, I hurt him, I-_  

Out of Eiji’s throat came an absolutely _obscene_ groan, one Ash would never dreamt he was capable of - it was unabashed arousal, naked yearning plain in the way he arched against Ash’s chest, the way he tipped his head back with abandon. Ash worried for a moment if he’d done something to Eiji - a thrall, perhaps, that made Eiji respond like this. He’d seen Dino’s victims react with some degree of arousal when they fed on in the midst of a thrall, though it was with a dullness behind their eyes, as though hardly aware of themselves.  

Eiji’s eyes smoldered with lust…. but they were perfectly lucid. Somebody in a thrall didn’t flush so lewdly around their neck or chest, evidence of their own desire. He realized with a delicious flutter of excitement that his innocent little Eiji got _off_ on it. Rather than being a reluctant participant, he could give Eiji pleasure beyond his wildest dreams. It was evident in the way Eij arched into him that every part of his body wanted Ash to drink.  

But Ash knew that all too well that biology could be a traitor. He had to be certain.

“Is this really okay? Do you want me to keep going?”  

Eiji tutted at him with such childish irritation that Ash couldn’t help but chuckle against the other man’s neck.  

“Do I look like I want you to stop?”  

“Well, no, but-”  

“I will tell you if I want you to stop. Don’t worry so much.  _Drink_.”  

With such an overt invitation, Ash didn't have any will left in him to resist any longer.  

He brought his mouth to the open wound on Eiji's neck once again, sucking softly to cause as little pain as possible - and, with a happy sigh, to savor the addictive flavor on his tongue. It was nothing like the vile swill he'd consumed before, but rather like fine melting chocolate spiked with wine, and some kind of spice he couldn't begin to identify.  Ash felt a pleasant buzz in his veins almost like the outer edges of intoxication - yet his body felt acutely aware of every sensation: the steady beating of Eiji's heart as he drank, the electrifying touch of gentle fingertips along his arm, the way Eiji’s pants shifted into moans. The sound traveled straight to his groin, and he resisted the urge to rut against the pliant body in his arms. Perhaps, another time, with many discussions had…. but he knew now wasn’t the time to give in with such abandon.  

Not yet.  

_“What does blood taste like when offered freely?”_  

Finally, finally… he knew. It was the breathless thrill of a kiss as its tone shifted, curious pecks to exploratory touches. It was lush desire that greedy men with unclean hands couldn’t steal from him - how ironic, he marveled, that the same act he’d condemned as depraved could give him something that remained pure, untouched. But as Eiji’s hand found his, lacing their fingers together… he wondered if blood could taste like home, the soft “ _okaeri_ ” that drifted from the living room no matter what hour it was.  

Blood tasted like time held still - Ash wasn’t sure if he’d drank for only five minutes or for hours… but like the finest experiences, he had no desire to see it end anytime soon. Every bit of slophe’d ever forced down his throat… he’d do it all over again. He’d choose to wait a thousand times over simply for the fact that Eiji, of all people, was the one that he could experience this with. 

Not even Dino could steal the pleasure of his first true feeding from him. 

Ash felt satiated in a way he hadn’t known since the childhood of his human years, the flow of blood in his veins - _Eiji’s_ blood \- made him feel so utterly fucking warm. It wasn’t the temporary reprieve of a kill in an alleyway, but something far more promising.  

A tiny snore interrupted Ash’s train of thought, and he glanced down to ascertain the source. Eiji’s head had drooped Ash’s chest, lips parted ever so slightly with the kind of slack-jawed expression he’d expect of a sleeping child. Ash sealed the seeping crescent-shaped wound with the tip of his tongue, trying to be as delicate as possible as to not wake him up.  

_He’s just like Sing,_ Ash thought with a fond smile.  

Yet with this thought came another, Shorter’s words coming back to haunt him.  

“You can usually _taste_ if you’re in love… blood doesn’t lie.”  

Ash dabbed at the last droplets of blood with the sleeve of his shirt. 

_Maybe not, but neither does Eiji._

** Edit: Now with gorgeous artwork from the incredibly talented [Kyyhky](https://twitter.com/Kyyhky7) - I'm in awe, it's so pretty! :D**

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